Thursday, 29 March 2007

No I've not gone mad , I'm just extremely thrilled to be able to present to you, our newly acquired gallic correspondent Pierrre La Stank!

It is a little known fact that Pierre was a Dreamcast Junkyard correspondent and team member before I was! Like a comet his blaze of glory was short lived!

But now he's back, with glad tidings of great joy! the long awaited sequel to the Saturn's Magnum Opus "NiGHTS" is back and on the Wii!!!

Cripes! Being a hard working chap and family man, Pierre only has time for the occasional post, but each one will be like the pearl inside an oyster... A beautiful discovery that took quality time to produce!

We here at the Saturn Junkyard are thrilled to have him aboard and look forward to his contributions!

Wednesday, 28 March 2007

Well, at least it confirmation if you can read Swedish. I can't. Not a lick. Not much call for it around here. But there are apparently other people out there that can (how quaint!). Anywho... I had mentioned in a comment to another posting here on the scenic and lovely SJY that there was indeed going to be a release of an all new NiGHTS into Dreams on the Wii. After posting that comment, I began to read in other places that this was perhaps going to be a sad sad April Fools Day joke. However, if our Swedish friends are to be believed, the rumor (or rumour to my oddly accented friends) is true: http://kotaku.com/gaming/nights/nights-sequel-confirmed-247480.php

I tend to believe this as the Swedes have never given me cause to think that they are lying. Some of my favorite people are Swedish. Now where is that chicken...

Tuesday, 27 March 2007

I must admit that when I started this hallowed blog, I wanted it to be not only a Saturn retrospective but also a site that reflected the ongoing life of the Saturn in all its glory...

Well I've found a site that Ithink encompasses that ideal... But I'll be damned if I've got a bloody clue what its on about! The Dreamcast has new independent games coming out that you can actually buyhere... There areSaturn Homebrew games about... but I've no idea how you get 'em! Look here.. Its far too bloody complicated for me to understand...

Any Saturn fan worth his or her salt would know about many of these titles but this is an excellent resource for those of you that think that the only two games released on the Saturn were "NiGHTS" and "Panzer Dragoon".

On a side note one of my recent additions to my collection, "Mr. Bones", was included in this list.

Friday, 23 March 2007

You may have noticed that the Saturn Junkyard is looking a bit sexier! That's because my good friends Gnome and Elderly have been tinkering with it's html behind the scenes. Thus the place has not one, but two, beautiful title banners at the top, plus the site logo!

I'm as happy as a pig in shit! Now, as well as doing the 'Yard a wonderful makeover, we've also got a new contributor in the mighty Gnome!!! I'm not even sure he meant that to happen, but now we've got him were keeping him!! Mwuahahaha!!!!!

I would like to publicly thank my good friends Gnome and Elderly for their love, help, support and inspiration. If it wasn't for them and Tomleecee, there would be no Saturn Junkyard. Check out their wonderful sites by clicking on their esteemed names.

Hopefully there will be some games reviews coming up within the next month, as I've got a couple of weeks off... so keep checking out the blog!!

Thursday, 22 March 2007

By necessity this needs to be a quick post, though I shall expand on its content in later posts...

Number one, after stunning detective work by Caleb, and the final piece of the puzzle by our renowned colleague Pierre, it would seem that the long anticipated return of the Saturn classic NiGHTS will make its way onto the Wii. This is a sequel people, the much sought after NiGHTS 2! The earlier Saturn version might yet still make it onto the Virtual Console as well!

As if to cosmically coincide with this event, I got the following haul at Gamestation tonight:

Alien Syndrome? wtf? Is that the SMS game that won't work with a Genesis controller? Was there another version of that game? Why the hell is THAT on there?

Anyways, I guess that Sega is going to keep on giving out these polls to get some fan feedback about what games to release onto the virtual console (or remake?), so keep checking the main site to see if there is a new one up and keep on picking your favorites!

Wednesday, 14 March 2007

As I was thumbing through the Metro News today, I spotted our favourite console, in an article about the (not uncommon) practise of seeking publicity for one's cause, by projecting a laser image onto the Houses Of Parliament.

Unfortunately the Saturn example was one highlighted as unmemorable, as opposed to this picture of Gail Porter's arse that will be emblazened on my memory forever.

So that's two examples of the Saturn's advertising team's stupidity in as many days! It makes me want to weep... Why couldn't they be like the Segata Sanshiro producing Japanese advertising team? They got it SO right...

Read the full article here and another one from the same paper that made me smile, here.

Monday, 12 March 2007

For literally years I played Saturn Games without being able to save them. That meant leaving the Saturn on for days, or having to set aside whole days devoted to trying to beat games.

Heck I've come so close to completing Caspar The Friendly Ghost so many times, only to find my well meaning wife had turned off the console to"save electricity"... I wouldn't mind but there's bloody loads of elecetricity out there!

So you can imagine my delight at finding out about the Action Replay 4M Auto Plus which acts as both a massive memory card AND a means of allowing you to play Japanese import games. I liked it so much I bought two! You can get one of these babies for a reasonable price from the wonderful Play Asia here

One of the best fighting games for the Sega Saturn this game mixed characters from both Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter Kids and other AM2 fighters. an absolute classic and even better if you only paid £1.75 for it (like I did...)

There are a total of 12 different full games to play in the main mode of Sega Superstars:Sonic the Hedgehog - As Sonic runs down a round tunnel, he follows the position of the players hand. Using this method, the aim of the game is to gather rings and Chaos Emeralds in order to obtain the highest score at the end of the game.Samba De Amigo - Players choose a song, and then must hit 6 different targets around the screen as the 'beat balls' reach them in time with the music. Posing with hands over 2 of the targets, or holding one position until a trail of beat balls is complete, may also be required from the player.Chu Chu Rocket - Movement over a certain target on the screen will causes a bridge to raise, which the chu-chus then follow to the goal. The bridge also must be dropped at certain moments to prevent KapuKapus from destroying the score.Puyo Pop Fever - Differently colored puyos will fall from the top of the screen, and the player's body must be positioned to guide them into the corrosponding pots and allow bombs to topple off the bottom of the screen.Crazy Taxi - Large movements and loud sounds must be undertaken to stop the Crazy Taxi and complete the level.Super Monkey Ball - The player must move their arms into different positions in order to guide the monkey ball around obstacles and towards the goal, picking up as may bananas as possible along the way.NiGHTS Into Dreams - NiGHTS must be controlled and navigated through rings, collecting chips along the way, by raising your arms into a 'flying' position and adjusting them along the way.House of the Dead - A multitude of different zombies must be attacked and defeated by hitting them. Innocent people who occasionally appear must also be avoided.Virtua Striker - As footballs drop from the top of the screen, the aim is to head them into differently colored and scored balloons on the opposite side of the screen in order to obtain the highest score.Virtua Fighter - Standing to one side, players kick and punch the corresponding attack prompts on the screen in order to defeat the opponent. Block and counter prompts also appear, and must be reacted to accordingly.Space Channel 5 - Different dance move combination must be remembered when shown by the Moralians, and then repeated in time to the music by hitting six different buttons on the screen.Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - By waving their hands over two different targets, players must move Billy and the egg around, and crush enemies and collect fruits along the way to the goal.[edit] Characters

These following characters are playable:Sonic the Hedgehog (Super Sonic)Shadow the Hedgehog (Super Shadow)AiAi the MonkeyMeeMee the MonkeyBaby the MonkeyGonGon the MonkeyNiGHTSUlalaAmigoBilly HatcherAkira YukiJacky BryantBD Joe[edit] Extra ModesIn the "Puyo Pop Fever" game, if you successfully complete all three levels, you unlock a mode called "Free Mode" that allows players to simply play around with puyos and experiment with moving them around.In the "NiGHTS into Dreams" game, successfully completing all three levels opens up a new night-time area (Twin Seeds) with harder levels and different scenery.Completing all three levels on both "Samba De Amigo" and "Chu Chu Rocket" unlocks an extra-hard difficulty setting.Also available is a variation of the Tiny Chao Garden from different Sonic games. Here, a chao can be hatched and petted via different movements. It is also possible to interact with some scenery (Shaking trees for fruit) and purchase items for the Chao using rings collected in the main game mode.[edit] Trivia & FeaturesThis is Sonic's first appearance in a game rated higher than E for Everyone by the ESRB. He would again appear in games rated higher than E in Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog, both rated E10+ and Sega Genesis Collection. rated T.Shadow the Hedgehog appears as an unlockable character in this game for the PlayStation 2's EyeToy. Upon collecting the Chaos Emeralds, he can transform into Super Shadow. Unlock Shadow by successfully completing all 3 difficulty levels with Sonic.Sonic's levels are based on the "special stages" in Sonic Heroes.Sonic appears to have the ability to transform into Super Sonic, upon collecting the Chaos Emeralds.This is the first playable appearance of NiGHTS since Christmas NiGHTS, released in late 1996

Oh and here's a nice link to Sega that's got a little bit of video on...Enjoy!

Tuesday, 6 March 2007

As a new poster to the Saturn Junkyard I would like to extend my thanks to FK for his gracious welcome. I hope to add some interesting content to this blog and hopefully provide some helpful info for those interested in the retro systems left behind in the console wars.

I got my Saturn at a flea market type sale in Buffalo NY. It came with 3 analog controllers and 15 games. I paid 20 bucks for the whole shebang. Damn good deal. I have been picking up games for it here and there for awhile and collected quite a few of the weirder games and less known stuff but nothing that is worth a great deal of money or is rare.

As an introduction here is some general info about my Saturn preferences and what games I would like to find...

What controller?

Well there is some variety in the controllers you can use. I have two main ones at the moment.

The regular model.

The fancy analog model. (Ever notice it looks like the dimwitted cousin of the Dreamcast controller?)

I have both and I have to say that I do not like the analog controller. Maybe it's good for games like NiGHTS and such but I really think the analog control is off a bit. For most of the games I play on the Saturn I would go with the regular controller. However the analog controller does make a good replacement for a light gun if you want to play a shooter and currently are not "packing".

The Game I would love to have:

Panzer Dragoon 2...I actually have a copy of this game but it crashes after the intro video. Hold it up to a light and you see that the top layer has been scratched. *Dammit* This is actually one of the things that shows that I am an honest person. Rather than try to sell it to some poor unsuspecting person I kept the disk. I might try yet again tonight to make this game work. However, as some of you know, a disk scratch from the top means TOTAL DEATH for a CD.

The Game I am ashamed I would play:

Hexen, Yeah I played through this game once on my 386 and I would love the chance for another shot. It's a fun game to play IMHO. If you love Doom try this out.

The Game I would love to have but I will never be able to afford:

Shining Force 3. The name says it all. I have played all the Shining force games except this one...$100+ American is what this will run you most places. Hopefully one day I will run into a copy somewhere.

Monday, 5 March 2007

Great things could soon be happening over at the Saturn Junkyard, as we welcome Caleb to the site! For those of you familiar with the wonderful Hunyak Blog, you will know that Caleb has:

a.) A large collecction of 'retro' consoles, including the pre-requisite Saturn. He is committed to 'retro gaming' to the point of resolutely refusing to be swept up in the 'next gen' hysteria that has the rest of us fools drooling...

b.) An encyclopaedic knowledge of video games of yore, and skills in terms of uncovering hidden nuggets of information, bits of gaming history and even the emulation/homebrew scene which is thriving out there!

c.) Pretty nifty media skills, knows his way round a video camera and editing suite and produces his own movies!

So The Saturn Junkyard is now a joint venture which should hopefully result in a greater output of Saturn related ramblings for the three people who read the site!

So with fanfares, drum rolls and fireworks we say "WELCOME CALEB! HERE'S TO THE FUTURE!"

Cripes! Heck! Blimey! We always knew the Saturn was a sexy console but could anyone have guessed it was this sexy? The ad run in Game Pro magazine caused controversy at the time, and apparently generated hate mail!!! What? For showing a scantily clad lady? I believe they deserved hearty congratulations and commendations! I don't know! Some people...

Check out the most controversial video game adverts over at the excellent Game Pro site here...

We all love a bargain... I remember when I first started collecting for the Saturn as a "Retro Gamer" (as opposed to a curre...

Celebrating 11 years of existence...and 7 years of excellence

Welcome to The Saturn Junkyard, a shrine to Sega's sadly departed console, for all lovers of retro gaming. A place where you can come and relive the glory days of the nineties and find out about the Saturn as a console: We'll take a sideways look at it's games, it's peripherals, it's history, it's marketing, plus shine the occasional spotlight on console modding and the homebrew scene. We make no claims to being authoritative, and everything we discuss will come with a heavy dose of personal opinion and subjectivity. But hopefully we'll raise a smile or two along the way!